SOURCE: 
Denver Post, March 13, 1999
650 15th Street,Denver,CO,80202 
(Fax 303-820-1369 ) (E-MAIL:   Letters@denverpost.com ) 
( http://www.denverpost.com  )

Ski resorts pressed to diversify
By Penny Parker, Denver Post Business Writer.

     LAS VEGAS -- March 12, 1999 -- The ski industry may be proficient at 
marketing to white, heterosexual males, but the opportunity to capture minority
markets is largely untapped.
     Asian-American, African-American and gay and lesbian populations have the
sheer numbers and financial power that should make the ski industry take
notice, said speakers at the seminar "Minorities:  Expanding Your Customer
Base,'' during the SnowSports Industries of America Vegas '99 trade show
Thursday.
     Sports marketing experts from the gay, Asian-American and
African-American communities offered ideas on how to bring their members to
the slopes.
     Why should ski resort companies listen?  Because minority groups are
growing at a faster rate than the white population, and the financial clout of
minorities represents billions of dollars.
     "The ski industry has a hard time recognizing diversity and speaking to
markets other than white, well-off people,'' said Mary Jo Tarallo, director of
marketing and communications for SIA.  "I look at this as a wake-up call for
the industry, that there are other markets out there and the industry needs to
listen to them, find out what they're looking for and figure out a way to
provide that.''

*     Big spending power

     The gay and lesbian community alone has an estimated spending power of
US$514 billion, according to research by Brenda G. Pitts, director of the sports
administration program at Florida State University.
     "We are no longer considered a pariah market,'' Pitts said.  "We are
potentially lucrative, we are chic and highly loyal to brand marketing.''

     Pitts quoted gay and lesbian statistics in sports participation and
spending:

     * 11 million to 13 million of all gays and lesbians in the United States
participate in a sport.
     * 5,000 to 15,000 participate annually in a lesbian and gay sporting
event in the United States.
     * The Gay Games, an annual Olympics-style event, has seen a 1,200 percent
growth in participation from 1982 to 1998.
     * The economic impact of the six-day Gay Games will grow from
US$360,000 in 1982 to an estimated  US$50 million in 2002.
     * During the 1998 Gay Games in Amsterdam, each person attending spent an
estimated $2,122 over six days.
     Another example of the legitimization of the gay and lesbian market to
manufacturers and other businesses is the heavyweight sponsorship that the Gay
Games are drawing, Pitts said.  KLM, the Dutch airline, was the lead sponsor
of the 1998 games.  Other mainstream companies, including Levi's, Avis,
Speedo and Red Bull, also put their logos and money into the games.
     The number of gay and lesbian ski weeks grows every year as ski resorts
increasingly recognize the financial windfall those events can bring.  
In Aspen, the lesbian and gay ski week in January is the second most popular
week at the resort after Christmas week, Pitts said.  Sponsors include Coors
Light and United Airlines.
     If a ski resort wants to build business in the gay and lesbian community,
the resort should consider using the rainbow symbol -- a symbol adopted by gays
and lesbians -- in advertising, Pitts said.  Resorts might also consider ads
that show same-sex couples.
     Pitts also recommended that resort companies support lesbian and gay
rights organizations through financial donations.  And the resorts should
advertise in magazines and other publications that target a gay and lesbian
audience, she said.
     Northstar-at-Tahoe, a California ski resort owned by former Vail owner
George Gillett, increased its Asian-American customers from 3 percent to 10
percent in five years by placing ads with discount coupons in Chinese language
newspapers distributed in the San Francisco Bay area, said Julie Maurer, vice
president of marketing for Gillett's company Booth Creek Ski Holdings Inc.
     Northstar recognized that 39 percent of the U.S. Asian population lives
in California -- a huge potential market for the ski resort, Maurer said.  The
Asian-American market in the United States has an estimated  US$159 billion in
annual buying power, according to research by DAE Advertising, a California
agency that specializes in the Asian market.
     Bob Bradshaw, a sports marketing expert who specializes in the
African-American market, said African-Americans are big spenders at ski
resorts -- even if they don't ski.  Bradshaw's research indicates that
African-Americans have an estimated  US$593 billion in annual discretionary
spending power.
     "And a great deal of that money is spent in consumer goods,'' Bradshaw
said.  "When we buy, we buy top shelf.  You got to be cool.  You got
nonshaped skis?  Where are you at?''
     Bradshaw said it's not uncommon to see blacks at a ski resort wearing
US$1,700 Bogner outfits.  "And they don't even ski,'' he said.  
"The African-American mentality is, I've got to get mine now.  They will
spend and spend now.  They spend more money on travel and leisure than white
people.''
     The National Brotherhood of Skiers represents 14,000 members who travel
in groups of up to 6,000 people to ski resorts.  Tarallo estimated that the
Brotherhood represents the largest group of people in the country who gather
for a ski event.
     Manufacturers, retailers and ski resorts often hesitate to invest in
reaching minority audiences because every time they try and cultivate a new
market, it costs money, Tarallo said.  Going after a niche market may mean
that money is taken away from advertising to the general population.
     "The ski industry says, "We don't have money to spend in your
marketplace,''' Bradshaw said.  "But you'd better get it, because by 2010 your
market is changing.  If you don't know how to talk to us, we'll go find
something else to do.''

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